Blocked: Many roads across the UK have been blocked by fallen trees (Image: Sussex Police)

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Traffic chaos is expected in the hardest hit areas this morning as Britain wakes up to the damage done by the St Jude storm.

Felled trees, telephone and electricity poles have blocked roads across southern England and into the Midlands as the hurricane force winds have travelled northwards.

In Sussex, a police officer was injured in the early hours of today after a tree fell onto the bonnet of a patrol car.

This came just minutes after a cab driver narrowly escaped serious injury when a large tree crushed his vehicle near Eastbourne.

This, together with the temporary closures of several major bridges due to the high winds, and the cancellation of many flights and rails services means thousands of commuters could be left stuck this morning.

With no let up in the storm in sight for the rest of the morning, the Highways Agency has warned motorists not to take unnecessary risks in trying to get to work.

Cancellations: Flights have already been cancelled due to storm (Image: PA)

Most train operators in the south of England cancelled services before 9am. Disruptions were expected throughout the day.

Network Rail said there will be no rush hour commuter trains into London from the south because of the risk of fallen power lines or trees and debris on the track from the expected hurricane-force winds.

Meanwhile, One-in-five early morning flights from Heathrow have been cancelled with disruption expected at other airports.

Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports announced yesteday that 20% of flights between 6am and 11am will not go ahead as planned as hurricane force winds are predicted first thing.

Ten percent of flights between 11am and 4pm have also been cancelled with around five percent not going ahead for the rest of tomorrow.

Heathrow handles nearly 1300 flights a day so the cancellations are sure to cause major problems for some travellers.

The decision was made following discussions between the airport, the Met Office, air traffic control and the airlines.

Heathrow said in a statement that "passengers due to travel on Monday should check the status of their flight with their airline before travelling to the airport.